Dark Souls - Review @ Gaming Trend

September 17th, 2012, 16:35

In a review of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die, Gamingtrend rates the game with a score of 91. The review is subtitled with: "Fix the bugs yourself".

First, letís start with the controls. Now, I am a stubborn PC gamer of the old school Ė a school that didnít bother with fancy-pants devices like ďgamepadsĒ. In game after game, I try and succeed to force the mouse/keyboard combo to work for me despite suggestions to the contrary, and until this point Iíve managed to succeed. With Dark Souls PC? I could not do it. Unless your reflexes and hand-eye-coordination works in some kind of alien relation that would no doubt confuse and frighten me, donít bother trying to play this game with anything but a controller, short of getting into some real over the top customization of said controls.
Actually, strike what I said: the fact is, getting into rather technical manipulation of the gameís internals is going to be rather unavoidable if you want a maximally enjoyable gameplay experience. Let me run down the list of what I had to do to really get this game playing properly. I used a fan-made 360 controller emulator to get my off-brand gamepad to work with anything approaching the grace of the console controller. This involved going into the emulator itself, tweaking and fixing things to be appropriately tuned for Dark Souls itself.

Originally Posted by borcanu
well, our problems certainly aren't the devs problems. I really believe every choice for that game is intended.. and in time I got to love them for it.. although i kinda stopped playing the game )

I wasn't really speaking about "devs problems".
I was talking about how, from a consumer perspective, there are way more worrisome issues with the port than being forced to play the game with a controller, which I would honestly dismiss as a damn trivial thing compared to locked resolution, locked framerate, GFWL integration, lack of communication and support from FROM (…sorry about that) and Namco or the idiotic choice to restart the client entirely every single time you log out from a character.

Anyway, I'm still enjoying the game immensely, but I can't help it but feel that it had the numbers to become a classic and a decent hit and they somehow blown their chances of having a long tail solid seller porting it with so little effort.

Originally Posted by Tuco
Damn, you guys seem to care VERY much about requiring a controller to play this game, considering that's essentially what you are highlighting for every single review you bothered to quote here.

On the other hand, I still think it's by far the *least* relevant problem of this game.

Considering my lack of skill with a controller and my lack of interest in developing that skill, requiring a controller is not only a major problem, it's a deal breaker.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Considering my lack of skill with a controller and my lack of interest in developing that skill, requiring a controller is not only a major problem, it's a deal breaker.

Well, good riddance.
I guess you can't be helped if you are somehow physically impaired (because it's the only way I can figure anyone being completely unable to use a controller, and that's coming from someone who plays mostly PC games since the late '80s).

Originally Posted by Tuco
Well, good riddance.
I guess you can't be helped if you are somehow physically impaired (because it's the only way I can figure anyone being completely unable to use a controller, and that's coming from someone who plays mostly PC games since the late '80s).

Well, if you ever met me I guarantee you would not make any cracks about being physically impaired but it's just easier to be rude when your behind a keyboard I guess.

Anyway, being unable to use a controller and not wanting to invest the time to become proficient with one are two different things.I don't care for controllers and that's one reason I play pc games almost exclusively.

I went throuh the trouble of installing the mod for better graphics and a mouse fix just too see what all the fuss is about this game. All I can tell you is that it was worth it, wow, great game so far. The atmosphere, the exploration, the combat.. all of them great great things in this game.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Considering my lack of skill with a controller and my lack of interest in developing that skill, requiring a controller is not only a major problem, it's a deal breaker.

I too hate controllers/gamepad and never used them. Use the mouse fix with the resolution fix and you will be in for a treat; just spend 5-10 min with the mouse and keyboard to customise them to your style so you are comfortable with them and in you go.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
I too hate controllers/gamepad and never used them. Use the mouse fix with the resolution fix and you will be in for a treat; just spend 5-10 min with the mouse and keyboard to customise them to your style so you are comfortable with them and in you go.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
I too hate controllers/gamepad and never used them. Use the mouse fix with the resolution fix and you will be in for a treat; just spend 5-10 min with the mouse and keyboard to customise them to your style so you are comfortable with them and in you go.

Yeah the resolution fix is nice though even with the mouse/keyboard fix I prefer to use my controller. Luckily it works well enough with my Saitek controller; if I ended up having to buy a 360 controller I would have probably just purchased a used PS3 copy in a year or two when they went down enough in price.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Anyway…I also hate the controller but I'm not sure this fix was better - did I just not spend enough time tinkering? I can't really explain it properly - just didn't feel right.

No, it's not about tinkering more or less.
Playing this game with a mouse just sucks. It's as simple as that.

We could point fingers all day to decide who's to blame for it, but the simple truth is: if you have a 20 bucks to spare make yourself a service and buy a controller.
It's useful for plenty of other games, after all.

And once again, that's coming from me: someone who uses M&KB every single time it's the better option and refused to buy a single console in the last ten years.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Thanks I will Check them out. Have you had any issues using m&k?

The game plays as intended with the mouse fix (which must be used with the resolution fix). I have had no problems what so ever with the mouse and keyboard with this fix; here is my layout as a suggestion:

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
The game plays as intended with the mouse fix (which must be used with the resolution fix). I have had no problems what so ever with the mouse and keyboard with this fix; here is my layout as a suggestion:

I am playing with a M&K aswell and haven't encountered any specific problems with it.
Only issue for me is that it seems like you still use the ingame options for mouse rotation speed and mine is at max. So, not the fastest rotation speed imo.

Originally Posted by Foss
I am playing with a M&K aswell and haven't encountered any specific problems with it.
Only issue for me is that it seems like you still use the ingame options for mouse rotation speed and mine is at max. So, not the fastest rotation speed imo.